Proud but envious - Rookie hunter hammers a HOG

[ElliotMoose]

Our annual mid-November trip was a memorable one this year. I had a pretty successful season with a moose and two deer in the freezer by thanksgiving (will post a thread sometime next week) so my brother and I decided to dedicate our trip to getting a couple of friends on their first animals. I packed the bow with me in case an opportunity at a big buck presented itself within bow range, but otherwise I planned to eat my mulie tag. After what seemed like the longest 4 days of our lives, the 4 of us were headed North Thursday after work to the ol' deer haunt. On the ride up, my friend sent us this pic of a buck he dropped the day before that really got the blood pumping. He shot him at 1 in the afternoon with 7 does. The rut was on and we couldn't wait to hit the woods!

*** This isn't the buck I am envious of. The guy who shot this is an accomplished hunter and puts in the hours. This picture just provided us with all the motivation we needed before the hunt and I figured you guys would like to see it. Our hunt story continues below ***

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/image_zpswfsq7wez.jpeg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/image_zpswfsq7wez.jpeg.html)

[Arctic Lake]

Nice animal for sure !
Arctic Lake

[adriaticum]

Hawg dawg!!

[Linksman313]

Nice Mulie!! congrats to your buddy!

[Timbow]

Congratulations! What a way to build memories.

[wideopenthrottle]

very nice buck..

[ElliotMoose]

The first morning we were late out of bed as we didnt get into camp until late the night before. We got out for a morning drive to look for sign and hopefully locate some does to stay close to that evening. The weather wasn't the best but we still saw a handful of does and one tall 2 point. Not much for action that evening as the rain hit mid afternoon and stuck around until dark. When we arrived back at camp my brother and our buddy said they had bumped a good buck on the treeline while quadding into a cutblock just before last light. They planned to walk into that cutblock the next morning.

The next morning came and with it finally some cool, clear weather. The 4 of us headed off in the same direction and split up between two small adjacent cutblocks in hopes of locating that buck from the night before. We crept into the cut as first light hit. 100 yards in I hear branches breaking. Look to my left and see a cow moose with her calf feeding at the treeline 75 yards away. I signaled to my buddy to sit tight and watch them as a bull could be near and it would be a cool experience for him plus maybe we could get some footage. 2 minutes later, BOOM! A rifle goes off in the direction of our comrades. We both look at each other thinking the same thing... BOOM again 10 seconds later. The cow calf make their way into the timber and all of a sudden a voice comes on the radio. "Buck down!" - Our buddy had just shot his first 4 point mulie. My hunting partner was anxious to see an animal on the ground up close so we headed back to the truck and made our way up the road to the next cut to find the fellas standing there at the truck with shit eating grins. We grabbed our knives and walked out into the cut to find a nice little basket 4. The fat on this guy was something else, will make for some good eating! We got him gutted, back to camp, hung up and skinned. The boys were fascinated by the whole process

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/005-2.jpg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/005-2.jpg.html)

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/024-2.jpg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/024-2.jpg.html)

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/023-2.jpg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/023-2.jpg.html)

[ElliotMoose]

I asked the boys how it all went down. They walked into their cut at first light, just like we did. They made it in about 200 yards and saw a group of deer feeding in the cut about 15 yards from the treeline. It was still too dark to make out what they were so they hunkered down and waited. As it got brighter, 4 does and two fawns materialized. They sat behind a stump for a few minutes and the buck, just like he was supposed to, walked out of the timber with his nose to the ground and started sniffing one of the does ass. As the doe took a few steps forward my brother gave a burp and the buck stopped broadside. The shot was right in the shoulder and the buck dropped. As he tried to stand up, our buddy put another one in and finished him off. He was on cloud 9! I think it's safe to say we have him hooked as he's already asking when bear season starts.



Our buddy with the buck

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/013-2.jpg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/013-2.jpg.html)


Im almost positive that this buck was one we had seen in late august while we were on a fishing/scouting trip. What do you guys think? picture was taken on a phone so not the greatest quality. This picture was taken less than a kilometer from where we shot this buck


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/image_zpsallf1cy2.png (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/image_zpsallf1cy2.png.html)


We got on the whiskey pretty hard that day and wrote off the evening for hunting. With two days left, it was time to get my hunting partner a buck. The other boys went and looked for a whitetail in an area that we knew there was a few of them. Weather looked good for the remainder of the hunt and it was time to get serious....


Will finish up tomorrow!

[tinhorse]

The summer picture looks like a bigger higher framed buck to me. Could just be the velvet but it looks bigger than the one taken. Nice bucks by the way. Looks like a very productive couple of days.

[Chopper333]

Congrats! I had an awesome rookie year also. 2 deer and a rosie in 4 weekends. Now...I wish I had the luck of my first year. Enjoy it my friend...enjoy it. Be proud, that's a nice buck.

[Jrax]

i agree with Tinhorse, the summer buck looks higher frame and bigger than the one taken. both are nice bucks, thanks for sharing

[Surrey Boy]

Congratulations!

[hunter1947]

nice mule deer that you posted up ,,congrats to the shooter will be a tasty meat on the dinner table..

[kennyj]

The buck in velvet has brow tines and is bigger over all I'd say.
Great post so far.
kenny

[ElliotMoose]

Come to think of it, now that I have the other pic blown up on the computer, the forks look a little deeper as well. I find after the velvet is off, the rut approaches and the necks get swollen it makes the rack look significantly smaller but I'll agree with you guys on this one. Same gene pool anyway!

[rocksteady]

Why be envious? You got a moose and 2 deer in the freezer... you got a years supply of good eating but would rather have a rack to look at???

Give your head a shake bud... If you are all about antlers don't shoot little ones..

[ElliotMoose]

If I wanted to shoot little ones I would have filled my mulie tag several times this year.. I shot two whitetails as I prefer the meat. That's not to say a big ol' mulie doesn't still get my heart going. It was a thread title. Sorry, maybe I should have put "Proud but A LITTLE envious." The (slightly) envious part comes after this last animal which I have not yet posted... which I could have easily shot but let my friend take it as his first. Man, the end of season blues must be comin on hard for some guys. Posts like that are why less people want to share their adventures on this site these days.

ANYWAYS, back to the hunt. We woke up well before dark and made the long drive to an area I hadn't hunted in a few years but had good success in my earlier hunting days. The elevation was higher than where we had been hunting and the temperature seemed perfect. We got to the spot I wanted to park and waited 20 minutes as it was still completely black.

We started our hike up the quad trail which led into a series of older overgrown cuts. We come to the first cut where I always used to see deer and stop to take a look. In the dim light I can make out an animal in the cut. I bring up my binos to see a moose staring right at me. A closer look reveals small antlers, it looks to be either a 3x3 or a 2x3!! Unfortunately the season closed a couple days prior so after a couple minutes watching him we continued our trek. We hunted hard all morning and though we only saw 3 does we had cut a ton of track and had a good feeling about the area. I found this rub in the timber just off the quad trail next to a big fresh pile of sh*t that really got me going.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/image_zpsdipcax8l.jpeg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/image_zpsdipcax8l.jpeg.html)

[rocksteady]

I am not busting your balls just saying you have had a great season so why be envious... You will kill a beauty 4 by 4, just not this year...

no no offence was intended

[ElliotMoose]

At about noon the stomachs began to growl so we retreated to the truck to refuel with sandwiches and coffee from the thermos. Just after 1 pm the boots were back on the ground and we were headed to where we found the rub. There was a cut not 100 yards from the rub that was littered with track and we decided this would be our spot for the evening. We bumped two whitetail does in one of the cuts along the way (as the "experienced" one, Ill take the blame. We were moving too quickly in anticipation of getting back to "the spot") and all we saw was the white flags headed into the bush. As we begin to approach our destination, a cool crisp wind hit us in the face. "This is it"- I thought to myself. As we entered the cut at a tip toe, nothing was to be seen but we found a stump to hunker down next to with a good shooting rest and also a good view of the area we guessed the deer were coming out to feed (judging by all the sign).

4 o'clock rolls around and still nothing. The sun is beginning to fade and the temperature begins to drop. All of a sudden, movement at the treeline. Bino's up, its a doe. She starts feeding her way into the cut. Over the next 10 minutes deer started emerging from the dark timber to feed at the edge of the cut. I looked over at my buddy and his eyes were as wide as saucers. I looked at him and gave him a thumbs up, he gave one back. He had my 270 wsm propped up on a log ready for action. We watched the does and spike buck, 7 deer in total, for about a half hour before one of the animals turned her head toward the timber...

[ElliotMoose]

The doe just stood there staring for minutes which seemed like hours. Then, in the fading light, out of the treeline emerges this monster of a buck. He was huge!!! He came out with his nose to the dirt but every couple steps he would freeze, lift his head and listen. I looked at my buddy who had now started to shake. This thing had all the characteristics of a dream buck for me. Points, tine length, beer can bases and those beautiful dark coloured antlers. Every bit of me wanted to harvest this animal but as I saw the look of excitement in my buddy's eyes, I just knew that this would mean so much more to him and I was happy just to be there for it. I told him to get ready for the shot as we were losing light fast. The buck was chasing around the does and wouldn't stop to present a shot, I whispered to my buddy that we had to make a move. I told him that I was going to try to stop the buck with a grunt and he would have to shoot as soon as he got the opportunity. As he was moving broadside, I softly blew on my grunt tube and just like it was out of a movie the buck stopped perfectly broadside and turned his head toward us. I was just about to whisper "shoot" when all of a sudden BOOM!!!!

The buck dropped instantly!!!! Does started bouncing everywhere scurrying to the timber and then just like that all was dead silent in the cut. I asked where he aimed, "right behind the shoulder like you told me!" he said with a big grin on his face. I felt a sense of accomplishment as I always do when helping someone get their animal. To me, this is just as good as pulling the trigger. We walked back to the truck in the dark (forgot my pack after lunch like an idiot) and the whole way it was "he's a good one eh? would you have shot him? that was a pretty good shot eh? What was that about 200 yards?" I just smiled as I thought back to my first deer and what a rush it was. We unloaded the quad and putted our way back up to where the buck was. When we got up to the buck we discovered that he had hit him in the neck. Whatever, didnt seem to go very far! We dressed him out, threw him on the front of the quad and headed back to the truck. Here he is in the back of my buddy's pickup. He has more pictures on his phone that I will try to get off him. Im doing a Euro mount for him and will post pictures when it's done. It's going to look great on the wall!!


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/chrisbrien/image_zpsai3muqil.jpeg (http://s35.photobucket.com/user/chrisbrien/media/image_zpsai3muqil.jpeg.html)


Hope this season has been good to everyone. I'm liking the quality of content being brought back to HBC this year. That's why I joined this site in the first place!
Thanks for reading,
Cheers

[Whonnock Boy]

Thanks for taking the time to share with us. Sounds like it was a great hunt. Congrats to the "rookie", and kudos to you for getting him started.

[untilthelastbeat]

What a hog. Good on ya man sounds like a great experience and a well written story. Thanks

[charlie_horse]

Sweeeeet buck man that's an awesome story

[Pinewood]

Enjoyed the read. Thanks for sharing.

[HarryToolips]

Very nice first buck, congrats to your friend..I don't think that's the same buck, the summer one looks to have longer tines in the back, and his brow tine on right looks longer..

[kennyj]

Thats a great buck!! Good for you for helping your buddy get such an awesome first buck. The hunting gods will smile on you in the future for sure.
Thanks for sharing your season.
kenny

[BigBanger]

Wow, thats a great deer. Your a good guy letting him take it. Thanks for sharing..